1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of and a system for automatically packaging various rolls having at least different roll widths, different roll diameters, or different package forms.
2. Description of the Related Art
Films for use in the field of platemaking for printing are in the form of a light-shielded photosensitive roll comprising an elongate photosensitive sheet wound around a core, a pair of light-shielding members mounted respectively on the opposite ends of the wound photosensitive sheet, and a light-shielding sheet (leader) wound around the photosensitive sheet.
Various light-shielded photosensitive rolls have heretofore been proposed in the art. The applicant of the present application has filed a patent application on a process for easily manufacturing such a light-shielded photosensitive roll (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2000-310834).
According to the process disclosed in the above patent publication, as shown in FIG. 168 of the accompanying drawings, two disk-shaped light-shielding members (flanged members) 2 are attached respectively to opposite ends of a photosensitive material roll 1, and an elongate heat-shrinkable light-shielding leader 3 which is longitudinally shrinkable with heat is wound around the photosensitive material roll 1, the light-shielding leader 3 having and end fixed to the photosensitive roll 1 by tapes 4. Then, the photosensitive roll 1 is placed in a shrink tunnel and heated to shrink the light-shielding leader 3. The light-shielding leader 3 is shrunk with heat to have its opposite edges brought into close contact with the outer edges of the disk-shaped light-shielding members 2, whereupon a light-shielded photosensitive roll 5 is completed.
The light-shielded photosensitive roll 5 is produced in different diameters. Specifically, there are available cores of different diameters, e.g., 2 inches and 3 inches, for supporting the photosensitive material roll 1 thereon, and the photosensitive material roll 1 is wound to different outside diameters on each of those cores. For example, the photosensitive material roll 1 is wound to four different outside diameters on cores having a diameter of 2 inches, and wound to two different outside diameters on cores having a diameter of 3 inches, so that a total of six different types of the light-shielded photosensitive roll 5 may be manufactured. In addition, the light-shielded photosensitive roll 5 is produced in different roll widths, and hard flanged members may be inserted as the disk-shaped light-shielding members 2. Therefore, the light-shielded photosensitive roll 5 is available in different package forms.
Usually, the light-shielded photosensitive roll 5 is manufactured according to a continuous packaging process for one roll size. When the light-shielded photosensitive roll 5 needs to be produced in a different roll diameter, a different roll width, or a different package form, the production facility requires a certain changeover, and the light-shielding leader 3 and the disk-shaped light-shielding members 2 need to be replaced.
Since such preparatory operations are considerably time-consuming, the overall efficiency of the packaging process is lowered, resulting in a failure to increase the productivity of the system for producing light-shielded photosensitive rolls 5. Furthermore, because photosensitive material rolls 1 of different sizes and forms need to be kept in temporary stock, the space and cost required for keeping them in temporary stock are large.